progress

I got to do a kidney transplant the other day. It was great. For one thing, the attending didn’t even draw a line for the incision. He just stood there, so I started measuring out for myself (two fingerbreadths above the inguinal ligament, which is a straight line between the pubic symphisis and the anterior superior iliac crest). He pointed a little higher (my fingers being a little small for the standard measurements), and then I just made the incision by myself. A small thing, I know, but a step away from the dotted line. . .

The best part was, when we got to sewing the anastomoses, he said, “You’ve been hanging out with the vascular surgeons, haven’t you? It shows.” And here I thought I hadn’t gotten enough OR time with vascular surgery to learn much of anything. It was good to have reassurance that I really have learned something since the beginning of this year (when I was on transplant).

High time to have learned something, I guess. Two weeks till the interns come, till we accept the current interns as our equals, till I’m a third year and have really no more excuses for not knowing the right answers.